Mississippi Queen
By Werner Hodel
Originally published by Goldseiber Spiele
Published in English by Rio Grande Games
$39.95There is a large movement in gaming right now for German produced games. Several of the larger companies there have been releasing high quality abstract board games unlike most of those sold by companies in the United States. The most notable and popular of these in recent years was Die Siedler Von Catan AKA Settlers of Catan which was imported and ultimately translated by Mayfair Games. One of the people responsible for that was Jay Tummelson. The reason for covering all of this is that Mr. Tummelson has formed his own company, Rio Grande Games, and is now producing his own English translations of popular German titles.
One of their first releases in this series is Mississippi Queen. The first professional design by Werner Hodel, it won the German Game of the Year Award for 1997. Based on paddle wheel ship racing in the late 1800s, the game is a fast playing and simple to learn game for the entire family. And not in a bad way. Let me explain.
First off, the component quality of this release is frankly extra-ordinary. There is a custom vacuum-formed tray to hold the steamboats and the river tiles, and the rulebook is 4 color throughout. The little ships are quite nice, and are both decorative and functional. Each of the river tiles is a painting, which shows me that a lot of consideration was put into the game. And the box is . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: July 17, 1998
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